


Sidewalk Chalk

by ChloeRhiannonX



Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Late Night Conversations, Late Night Drives, Returning Home, Romance, Teenagers, a little bit coffee shop au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24492667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloeRhiannonX/pseuds/ChloeRhiannonX
Summary: Ten years after moving away from her hometown, Courtney is now back to finish her senior year of high school. She's excited to see everyone again but isn't prepared for how much everything has changed - especially her best friend, Gwen. Now they get to meet each other all over again and maybe this time there's a little more than friendship...
Relationships: Alejandro Burromuerto/Heather, Bridgette/Geoff (Total Drama), Courtney/Gwen (Total Drama), Duncan/Gwen (Total Drama)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 28





	1. Prologue

The classroom was colorful. The walls were a faded yellow but the posters half hanging from them were a rainbow across the packed space. The desks and chairs had once been painted but even the chipped and stained paint brought the room into a positive place.

The only thing bringing down the room was Courtney's mood.

At eight years old Courtney was popular. From the twenty-three other kids in her class she considered herself to be friends with nineteen of them, and the other four she could say at least liked her enough to give her cards on this tragic day.

She sat through her lessons, her head in her hands as the rest of the class buzzed around her.

One more day until summer vacation

One more day until Courtney's life as she knew it ended.

Three weeks ago, to the day, Courtney remembered her parents sitting her down in the family room of her grandmother's house.

"Courtney, we have something to tell you," her mom had said gently. Her parent's hands rested twined together on her mothers' knee and Courtney screwed her face together in confusion.

When Cody's parents had said they had something to tell him they had a new baby. Courtney didn't want a new baby.

And when Heather's parents said they had something to tell her, her dad moved into a different house. Courtney didn't want her dad to live somewhere else.

There was no new baby and they were staying together really, just not in the home that Courtney had known her whole life. The one with the white picket fence and pink walls of her bedroom; the one with the tyre swing in the garden tree and her height chart against the pantry door. No, they would be in a new home three hundred and fifty miles from where Courtney wanted to be.

She threw a tantrum; legs kicking and lungs bellowing until she could feel herself shaking with tears. Until she realised her parents had their minds set on a new house so very far away from her home.

So, she decided she wasn't going with them. Until they started packing up her bedroom.

So, she decided to ignore the situation. If she didn't think about moving then she wouldn't move, right? Until it was the final day of school for the year and the moving truck was coming first thing tomorrow morning.

Courtney sighed into her arm, quieter than she had been all year. She turned her head to the desk to her right and her best friends smiling face gleamed at her.

Gwen had taken the news as well as Courtney had with tantrums and disbelief. They'd vowed to never speak of it after Courtney had broken the news, believing in her ignoring-the-situation theory, as Gwen believed in everything Courtney said to her.

But now the day was here, and Courtney's heart was breaking as Gwen smiled at her with good intentions. She was never going to find another best friend like her, who shared her candy when she was hungry and held her hand when they crossed the street, who let her read her long novels when she came over and always let her play as Princess Peach on Mario Kart, even though she was both their favorite.

Courtney didn't want another best friend. Gwen was her best friend and always would be.

The school bell rang at three and Courtney stayed in place. She waited for the rest of her peers to rush for their backpacks and scarper out the door, ready to start their summer vacation. They all talked excitedly, making plans to see each other at the playground, laughing their way out of the school building.

A small hand fell on Courtney's shoulder and she lifted her head to find Gwen beside her again, her purple backpack in her hand. Her dark hair fell into her eyes and she shook her head to dispel it from her vision, her grin widening.

Courtney couldn't help but smile back, her heart full. She took her backpack from Gwen's hands, the inside stuffed with goodbye cards from everyone in the class, and then took her hand to let herself be led from her second-grade classroom, away from her life.

The schoolyard was starting to empty, and Courtney could easily spot her dad chattering away with Gwen's mom near the green gates. She stopped in her tracks, planting her feet to the ground. It was happening too fast. She was leaving too fast.

Gwen tugged on her hand, a smile on her face to oppose the terror on Courtney's. She was worried she would lead her over to her father, that this would be their last goodbye and she would never live her life beside her best friend again, but Gwen started walking towards the side of the school building.

Courtney watched as she shrugged her school bag off her shoulders and riffled around inside. She drew her hand out clutching two pieces of chalk, one pink, one green. Courtney couldn't not smile. She took the pink piece of drawing chalk from her best friends hand and watched as Gwen wrote her name slowly against the school wall, taking her time to carve out each letter.

She moved back, allowing Courtney space to add her own name and a plus sign between them. She took her time also, mouthing each letter of her name as she scrawled on the brick wall.

When she was finished Gwen stepped back up, adding a third word beneath.

Courtney added a fourth.

Gwen finished with the fifth.

They stood hand-in-hand, looking at their artwork, tears in Courtney's eyes.

"You're my best friend, Courtney," Gwen whispered, squeezing their fingers. "Forever."

"Forever," she repeated, throwing her arms around Gwen in a deep hug.

Their parents found them embracing, sad smiles on the adult's faces. They left them to hug for as long as they needed, and Courtney would have stayed wrapped in Gwen's arms for the rest of her life if her father hadn't patted her on the head, telling her it was time. There were still boxes to pack at home, which Courtney dreaded, even more, going back to now.

She let her father lead her out of the schoolyard, waving her hand at Gwen who now matched Courtney's sad eyes. Tears streamed down her cheek as Gwen moved out of sight and Courtney turned to take a final look at their masterpiece written on the school wall.

Gwen  
and  
Courtney  
best  
friends  
forever

* * *

Every Friday after school Courtney would furiously scribble her feelings, taking up several pages in her notebook. She would tear them out, careful not to rip the edges, and fold them neatly down the middle, ready for her dad to place in an envelope and take to the post office the next morning.

Usually on Wednesday or Thursday, by the time Courtney got home from school, there was a letter waiting for her on the dining room table, scrawled in her best friends handwriting.

Courtney told Gwen all about her new school, the people in her class, her teachers, what she learnt each week.

She wasn't as good at making friends in her new school and spent most days in the library by herself, getting a head start on homework or discovering new books she thought her best friend would enjoy as well.

Gwen told Courtney all about their school, the gossip of their classmates.

Cody was going to have another baby brother and Heather's dad was marrying a woman who wasn't Heather's mom. Duncan had ended up in detention more than once this year and there was a new boy in their class, Geoff, who Gwen thought Courtney would have liked.

They talked about Mario Kart and Courtney's new school shoes; they talk about their favourite cartoon and Gwen's drawings that she sends some weeks.

Each week Courtney waited excitedly for an update until some weeks she didn't get one at all.

Each week Courtney would sit and write to Gwen until her pen ran out of ink.

Until the end of the following summer when the letters stopped coming altogether.


	2. Chapter One

The house was exactly as she remembered it. The walls were the same musty colour and the sofa was just as lumpy; the garden was just as overrun with flowerpots and the smell was just as homely. Courtney had spent more of his childhood in this house than she had her own. The only difference was the absence of her grandmother.

It had been a long nine days since her father broke the news. Courtney was sat in her bedroom, watching the sunset through the trees that lined the back of their house, and he had gently approached her with a cautious tone he saved for special occasions such as this.

Now they paced back the three hundred and fifty miles that Courtney could never forget in her mind. The three hundred and fifty miles that lead her home to Muskoka.

She had spent more than half her life in Montreal, but it didn't have the same feel, the same fit. It wasn't where she had learnt to ride her bike in the summer or where she had learnt to sled in the winter. It wasn't where her family was, her friends. It wasn't home.

Courtney was unpacking her boxes of school supplies, tucking them into the empty desk in the guest bedroom of her grandmother's house. She thought back to all the nights she had slept in this room when her parents worked late, watching the stillness of their little town outside of the bedroom window until the stars were twinkling above her head.

There was a knot in the pit of her stomach, pulling her every which way. Ten years was a long time to be away from her home, so why didn't she feel comforted by the fact she was back?

"Courtney," her mother calls up the stairs. "Court, come down here."

Courtney got to her feet, tucking the half-emptied boxes away from the door. She followed her mother's voice to the bottom of the staircase where she found both her parents standing by the open front door. They were accompanied by two people Courtney didn't recognise; an older woman, around her parent's age, with short blonde hair wearing a fitted maxi dress to help combat the summer heat, as well as a younger girl, presumably her daughter around Courtney's own age, with the same blonde hair only longer and pulled back into a loose ponytail. She was wearing a bikini top and board shorts, and she watched Courtney with a grin on her face as she descended the stairs.

"Courtney, this is Maxine and her daughter Bridgette, they live next door," her mother explained. "You and Bridgette used to go to school together."

"Uh…Hi." Courtney thought for a moment, trying to picture her elementary school classroom but over the years her school memories had become fragmented.

"Bridgette's offered to show you around town, try and get your bearings again." Courtney raised an eyebrow at her mothers encouraging smile.

"Oh, thank you," Courtney smiled back. "I've still got some boxes to unpack-"

"We can sort all that out later," her father assured her, his hand on his wife's shoulder.

Courtney chewed on her lower lip. She didn't think she was going to be thrown back in the deep end of making friends as soon as she walked through the door, but she understood her parents encouraging smiles. They had worried about her for the last ten years, spending too much time to herself, so for their sake, Courtney sucked it up and agreed to spend the afternoon with Bridgette.

Twenty minutes later, Courtney found herself in the passenger seat of Bridgette's 2008 Honda Civic, a breeze in her hair with all four windows rolled down to compensate for the broken air conditioner and the smell of the ocean surrounding her even though they weren't close enough to the beach yet.

"Your parents own the surf shop, right?" Courtney asked, eyeing the surfboard laid awkwardly between the trunk and the folded down seats in the back.

"They used to," Bridgette explained, her smile wavering for a moment. "They sold it when my dad got sick. He's okay now," she quickly added. "But the shop was a lot for them to handle. Geoff moved here that year and his parents bought it off them, that's kind of how we met, and then school started, and he just fit right in."

Courtney's gut twisted. She remembered being told about Geoff after her move and had imagined him slotting right into the empty space Courtney had left in their class. It had broken her heart when she was eight and couldn't imagine why it would break her heart now, but his name felt like a sucker punch and she hadn't even met him yet.

"Okay, so here we have the main street." Bridgette gestured broadly with her hand out the window. "A lot of shops have shut down over the years, but something always pops up in its place. That's where the chocolate place used to be, do you remember that? It's a bookstore now. And just around that corner," Bridgette pointed about halfway down the street. "Heather's dad opened up a second one of his chain restaurants here, it's always so busy in there."

Courtney tried to picture the main street as it had been last time she was here, but all she saw was what was in front of her. She did remember the chocolate shop, or at least she remembered her grandmother taking her there when she was young. She remembered the antique store with the furniture she wasn't allowed to touch, and the children's play centre she was just about outgrowing when she had moved away.

Out the window the red-brick buildings blurred into one, rolling down the hill further into town. Beyond that was another residential area and beyond that was the sea. Courtney could remember small things, like where the fire station sat perched between houses, and the path from the elementary school to her old house, but sitting in an unfamiliar car in a town that seemed unfamiliar to her, she felt very disconnected from the world she had craved to live in.

Bridgette came to a sudden stop, her foot catching the break just in time as a man ran out onto the road in front of them. Courtney jerked forward slightly but luckily Bridgette hadn't been driving nearly fast enough to cause any damage.

"What the fuck, Duncan?" Bridgette called out her window, surprising Courtney with her language.

The young man grinned, running a hair through his green hair before jogging up alongside Bridgette's car. He let himself in, settling himself uncomfortably around the surfboard.

"Must you carry this thing in your car always?" He huffed, lifting his sunglasses from his face.

Courtney stared at him intensively, trying to picture what he might have looked like as an eight-year-old, but the boy in front of her was clearly a man now.

"You were driving slow, thought I'd scare you," he chuckled, lightly pulling on Bridgette's ponytail. "Why are we driving so slow and who is this?"

"This is Courtney, she moved at the end of second, remember?"

Duncan scratched his chin, looking her up and down. "Oh yeah, I remember you, Princess," he grinned. Courtney raised a sceptical eyebrow, leaning herself away from him. "You were the girl who always demanded to play Princess Peach, right? We used to play together in the basement on my brothers old Wii console, man those were some fun times kicking your ass."

"Only because you cheated," Courtney scoffed, recalling the little blonde boy who was determined to play as Bowser because why-would-you-want-to-be-Mario? "You used to use the shortcuts that none of us knew about."

Duncan laughed, throwing his head back and Bridgette rolled her eyes.

Courtney settled back into her seat properly, waiting for Bridgette to move the car as she was still stopped in the middle of the road, but she made no such move.

"Did you see the new painting on the side of Burger Shack?" Duncan asked and Bridgette shook her head. "It's the ocean with a wave and some sea animals; very much your vibe, Bridgey."

"They're painting buildings?" Courtney asked, moving her head between the two of them.

Bridgette shook her head again. "No, someone is painting things around town. No one knows who but it's been going on all summer."

"My dad's determined to bust whoever it is, but no leads so far. I'm sure everyone's gonna be talking about it tonight," Duncan said, reaching for the door to let himself out. "That and you of course."

"What's tonight?" Courtney asked, whipping her head back around to face him.

"Oh, I haven't told you!" Bridgette squealed, her smile back on her face. "It's the last party of the summer tonight, Geoff throws one every year on the weekend before we go back to school, you've got to come."

"I don't know, I'm not really a party person…"

But Courtney still found herself that evening in Geoff's kitchen, a red plastic cup in her hand like some bad teen rom-com, and to her surprise, she didn't hate it. Particularly, she didn't hate Geoff. Of all the ways she expected him to be, she hadn't anticipated on the bear hug she got the moment he saw her and the friendliness he had given when touring her around the house.

Between the couple, Courtney had been introduced to nearly everyone. She remembered some more than others, and not everyone at the party had been in the same elementary, having come from neighboring towns to attend Muskoka High School.

Courtney's nerves were disappearing the further she got into the night, enjoying the company Bridgette kept her surrounded by.

Even after Bridgette and Geoff had snuck away from her side, Courtney didn't feel uneasy, but she did feel overwhelmed; someone stopped her at every corner of the house, asking her questions about life outside of their small town.

She managed to find her escape through an open door leading out into the backyard. Immediately beyond the door was a large in-ground swimming pool and Courtney narrowly avoided falling feet first into. She took a step back and followed the wall of the house around the edge, perching herself on a sun lounger far enough away that no one would see her in the shadows.

The music of the party raced around her, and she could still hear the yells and laughter coming from inside, but no one had made an attempt to follow her.

Courtney titled her head up, watching the stars above. In all the ways she had imagined coming back home this wasn't anything like she pictured. She always imagined she'd be an outcast again, thrown to the side. When she had moved to Montreal, she had found it very difficult to make friends. By third grade most people had their friendship groups cemented in place; there wasn't any room for an outsider. The same worries had plagued her mind every day since she knew she would be coming back here; everyone was older now, they had their friends, knew where they stood in the social ranking, but a few hours with Bridgette had eased her worrying, and being in the middle of a summer party, where being the new girl was like being the main event, she didn't remember what she was worried about.

Across the pool, she heard a noise, the rustle of paper and the distinct noise of a lighter sparking. Courtney could see a figure sitting a little bit further down than her on the opposite side of the yard, also perched on a sun lounger, their back to the green garden behind. They didn't appear to be watching Courtney or have noticed her presence in any way, but Courtney watched as they lifted their cigarette to their lips and inhaled deeply. She had to bite her tongue to stop her from calling out how bad a habit that was; she didn't feel like she was in the position to start arguments with people before the school year had even begun.

They stayed like that for a moment, Courtney watching through the shadows. She was sure this wasn't someone she had been introduced to yet, though in the moonlight, and at a distance, it was hard to distinguish any features that may have been recognisable.

"There you are." Courtney turned her head to see Bridgette walking towards her from the house. She held in her hands Courtney's jacket and she placed it on the lounger between as she sat down.

"My curfew's soon," Bridgette explained, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. "I thought we should start walking home if you're ready to leave."

Courtney turned her attention back to the person across the pool, who took a final drink from their own red cup before stubbing out the cigarette on the floor. She watched as they got to their feet, strolling towards the garden fence.

"Who is that?" Courtney whispered, bowing her head towards Bridgette.

Bridgette followed Courtney's line of sight to where the mystery person was letting themselves out of the garden gate, and she sighed.

"That's…That's Gwen."

"Gwen," Courtney repeated. "Gwen Price?"

Bridgette nodded. "You two used to be friends, right? I was kind of relieved today when you didn't ask about her."

"Why would you be relieved?" Courtney asked, confused.

"I don't want you to think she's avoiding you on purpose, or anything, she's kind of been avoiding us all since freshman year."

Courtney looked back at the gate, but Gwen had already disappeared into the darkness. She felt her chest constrict again, her nerves returning as she remembered her childhood best friend. Courtney had tried so hard not to think of her, not to wonder what it would be like when they were reunited, but now curiosity was getting the better of her and she wanted to know more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really know how to end this chapter but here we go! A lil bit of mystery…maybe?
> 
> I'm really enjoying writing this! Please let me know what you think!
> 
> Love,
> 
> ChloeRhiannonX


	3. Chapter Two

Courtney's junior year of high school had been difficult, to say the least. The sheer amount of homework and essays and college application forms that had weighed her down were nothing compared to what everyone else was complaining about this first week of senior year.

Courtney didn't really know what she had been expecting from her senior year, it most likely would have been more of the same but she didn't even have assignments from half her classes yet and while she sat in the cafeteria listening to Geoff and Duncan's complaints over lunch she didn't quite understand what the big deal was.

The first week of school had flown by while Courtney was adjusting. She was happy she had Bridgette at her side because it took a few days to get her bearings. They had most classes together, but those they didn't Bridgette had made sure that someone else was there to help her get her grips.

In Montreal Courtney hadn't even known the names of half her school year, let alone the whole school, which is what being back in Muskoka was exactly like. In the school community, everyone knew everyone, and everyone definitely knew Courtney. Whether they remembered her from childhood or not, they knew her name now and she found herself receiving head nods and high fives from peers in the hallways that she didn't think she'd even met yet.

"Do you know what kind of dress you want?" Bridgette asked, twirling a finger around a loose piece of her hair.

"What?" Courtney turned to look at her new friend. They were sat across from each other at the lunch table with Bridgette mindlessly staring across the cafeteria.

Courtney hadn't missed the posters sporting every corridor as she ventured between classrooms and it was the second biggest news event circling the school; the homecoming dance.

"I haven't really thought about it," she admitted. "I... I'm not one for school dances."

"You have to go, everyone goes!" Bridgette protested.

"You can take Duncan," Geoff laughed. "No one else will have him."

Courtney turned her attention back to Bridgette as the two boys started throwing fries across the table. It wasn't as if she hadn't thought about it since the start of the week when the first poster appeared, but the last time she had attended a school dance was in sixth grade, where she spent five minutes at the dance and the rest of the time in a toilet stall reading a book she snuck from the library.

"Did they have homecoming at your old school?" Bridgette asked, sitting up sharply. "Did you do King and Queen? Personally, I think it's an outdated tradition but Heather's been campaigning since freshman year so there's no way anyone is taking that crown from her."

There had been homecoming in Montreal, but Courtney didn't feel like getting into her reasons for not attending such an event.

"We can go dress shopping tonight," Bridgette suggested. "Oh, I can drive us to Huntsville, and we can go to the cute boutique on the corner!"

"Uh…" Courtney stumbled. "Maybe next week. I've got a lot of homework to do right now, wouldn't want to miss any deadlines at the start of the semester, right?"

Bridgette frowned. "We could study together," she offered. "We can all come back to mine, right?" She elbowed Geoff in the side and next to Courtney Duncan started choking on his lunch.

"It's okay, thank you," Courtney smiled back. "I prefer to study alone."

She didn't have a car of her own yet and both of her parents would be at the hospital already, so once the final bell rang, she decided to wander onto the main street herself.

A few people, more than she had been expecting, had stopped and offered her a ride, but Courtney was feeling the need to be by herself for a little while; he first week of school have overwhelmed her with good intentions.

She traced through the buildings and business' Bridgette had helped point out, trying to piece back her memories of the town she had always thought of as home. It was a nostalgic twist in her stomach as she realised her life wasn't going to be the same as when she was eight, and that her life wouldn't be the same in six months from now when she was either another brick in the wall of Muskoka or in the car heading back to Montreal.

The coffee shop seemed like a good idea.

Courtney wasn't sure whether The Grind was a newer addition to the town, or if she simply had been unaware of its existence as a child since neither of her parents were coffee shop kind of people, either way, it was definitely the sort of place Courtney had found she enjoyed to spread out her books and get some work done.

In Montreal, she had been spoilt for choice on big chain coffee shops, with a Starbucks on every corner and a Tim Hortons in between each one, but it was the secluded, unknown places that she liked to curl herself into the best, away from the eyes of people who thought they knew her.

It was rare for her to see someone she knew from school in Montreal, but as she walked up to the counter, she should have realised that having one coffee shop in town meant seeing a familiar face.

Courtney hadn't got a good look at her the night of the party, but now in broad daylight, she could see her best friends face hadn't changed very much at all.

"Hi," Courtney greeted with a small smile. "I saw you at the party, but I didn't know if it was a good time to talk."

"You looked like you were having a good time with everyone else," Gwen shrugged, her face neutral. "Do you want a drink?"

"Coffee, black." Courtney dug around in her school bag for her wallet, trying not to make eye contact and then cursing herself for not making eye contact. "So, how have you been?"

Gwen raised an eyebrow over her shoulder as she turned towards the coffee machine on the back counter. "That's how you want to start? 'How have you been?'" Gwen snorted, turning back to finish Courtney's drink.

Courtney bit her lip. She didn't really know what else to say. There wasn't really any reading material for seeing your childhood best friend again after nine years when she had been the one to cut communication for no reason.

She didn't want to be on a bad note with her, so Courtney paid for her drink and found a table in the back to spread her homework out on.

It wasn't busy in the café and the almost silence was beating against Courtney's ears. She sat for forty minutes until her half-finished coffee had gone cold and the lines of her textbooks were blurred. She liked to study with noise; other peoples whispered conversations, the coffee machine whirring away, and dishes clinking together. She didn't have that being one of four people in the room.

Gwen was sat on the counter scrolling through her phone for most of the hour.

Courtney wondered how easy but boring of a job it must have been since the place was dying a slow death. She watched her former friend for the rest of her shift and once six o'clock came Gwen packed herself up and waved goodbye to her replacement barista, not giving Courtney a second glance.

Courtney didn't want to think she was following so she waited another ten minutes before packing up her own supplies and heading out the door, walking her way through the residential streets to her grandmother's house.

The following morning Courtney woke up to find she'd been added to a group chat that appeared to have most of her year group involved.

Several pictures were being sent back and fore of selfies taken in front of The Grind where on the wall beside the door a new art piece had appeared.

Pink, red and white carnations tumbled down the doorway, sprouting from a beige flowerpot, cracked along the sides.

Courtney almost mistook them for real flowers as she pinched her phone screen to zoom in. They were hyperrealist and her stomach twisted as she traced her finger along the edge of the photograph. They were beautiful.

By Monday, when everyone was buzzing around the school hallways once more, the topic of the flowers was floating between each conversation. No one was any the wiser as to who crafted the new masterpiece, and everyone had their own opinions on the artwork spreading through the small town.

Courtney tried to drown out the noise from her peers. She had managed to finish her homework over the weekend at home, but her phone had blown up with texts in the group chat every other minute. She had considered leaving but thought better of it; she was still trying to build a reputation outside of the new girl.

"I don't think it's anyone in town," Duncan admitted, leaning on the locker beside Bridgette's. "No one around here would have that kind of talent."

"I think it's you," Bridgette smirked, unshouldering her school bag. "You would do anything to piss your dad off."

Duncan chuckled and Courtney stared at him with worry. She didn't think Duncan would do such a thing, but did she really know him well enough to say that? Did she know any of them well enough to guess who the mystery graffiti artist was?

Bridgette carefully opened her top-shelf locker to a shower of flower petals raining down around her. She took a step back a little speechless and turned in time to find her boyfriend down on one knee and a white cardboard sign in hand.

"Bridge, will you go to homecoming with me?"

"Yes!" She squealed in response, throwing her arms around Geoff as he rose up off the floor.

Courtney smiled as the two embraced and she watched Duncan gag from the other side of the happy couple.

"No one's ever done anything that romantic for me," she admitted wistfully, though she hadn't really thought too deeply on the subject. She always figured that dating would come later for herself, once she had her education out of the way and there was time for all of that, but watching her two friends sucking face in front of her, she couldn't help but feel at least a small bubble of jealousy.

"A woman as beautiful as you has never been swept off her feet in such a way?" Another voice sounded over Courtney's shoulder and she turned to find Alejandro standing a few steps away from her. "I would like to fix that for you."

"You want to ask me to homecoming with a romantic gesture?" Courtney questioned. "You don't know me."

"No, but I'd like to," he smirked, taking a step closer.

Courtney felt Bridgette's presence beside her in an instant, her friend taking a stance.

"You're going with Heather, aren't you?" Bridgette stated rather than asked. "You always go to dances together."

Alejandro shrugged his shoulders, his face cool. "We had a falling out over the summer and I like to keep my dating options open."

Courtney heart Duncan snorting behind her, but he made no move to come closer. Bridgette had joked about the two of them going, but if he wasn't interested, she wasn't going to turn down another offer if she was being forced to attend the dance.

"Make it a bold enough ask and we'll see how I feel."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to finish this today but it's now very late in the night and I wish I had a girlfriend so here we are.
> 
> Love,
> 
> ChloeRhiannonX


	4. Chapter Three

**Sidewalk Chalk**

**Chapter Three**

Courtney couldn't say that the boy didn't come through.

It was the fifth period of the day and she was sat in her biology class listening to her teacher drone on about subjects that she had already learnt the previous year. It was the only class she didn't like taking but luckily for her it was also her only class where she sat close enough to the window that she could stare out at the wide-open fields behind the main school building and watch the clouds and the birds passing by.

There wasn't anyone out in the field for gym today, so Courtney was confused when she heard the commotion below followed by everyone in her class running to the window. She moved herself between her classmates, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.

On the grass below was an assortment of flowers, thousands upon thousands of petals all piled together in an intricate design that spelt out:

HOMECOMING?

Alejandro was beaming up at her and a small gasp escaped Courtney's mouth as she stared speechless at the gesture.

The whole class had their eyes on her and there was only one thing she could say.

That was how she found herself posing in front of Maxine's flower garden, Alejandro with his arm tucked around her waist. She smiled dutifully for the camera, knowing that she was going to see these pictures framed and placed on the fireplace before she even got home from the dance.

"I'm sorry about this," she whispered to Alejandro in between photoshoots. "I haven't been to a homecoming dance before and being an only child and all that." Courtney shrugged her shoulders in apology, but Alejandro just chuckled.

"I get it," he replied. "I have three older brothers; I have seen them all go through it."

Courtney gave him a small smile and they fell into an awkward silence. They hadn't spoken much in the past week leading up to the dance. They made small talk in the few classes they shared, but Courtney always found Heather's daggered eyes to be on her.

Bridgette had explained to her how the school "IT" couple had been on-and-off since freshman year when they met, but during the off neither of them had pursued anyone else.

It made Courtney uncomfortable thinking she was going to be caught in the middle of this lover's fight, even when she didn't think she wanted to date Alejandro. Besides not knowing each other, the prospect of dating wasn't at the forefront of Courtney's mind, she had herself focused on school and graduation and jetting off to college.

"Your grandmother's going to love to see these." Courtney turned to find her parents had crept up on her. "We'll show her when we visit tomorrow."

They finished up the pictures and Courtney's dad drove both Courtney and her date along with Bridgette and Geoff over to the high school.

They walked together into the gym and found themselves transported into the world of teenage debauchery. The music was too loud to hear each other and the rotating lights blinded as they shifted around the room.

Before the doors had closed behind them, Bridgette was already pulling Geoff towards the dance floor, twirling herself beneath his outstretched arm.

Alejandro gestured towards an empty table near the side where the crowd had thinned out. They sat beside each other, his foot tapping beneath the table in time to the music.

"Do you want to dance?" Alejandro asked loudly, motioning his head towards the center of the room.

Courtney shook her head, wanting to stay planted in her seat.

They sat in perfect silence and Courtney watched the dance floor, trying to pinpoint people she knew, but the flashing lights weren't a good source of light and everyone's bouncing bodies made it difficult to spot individuals. She'd lost her friends somewhere in the crowd and hadn't even been able to spot the reassurance of Duncan's green mohawk, so she sat bored, drumming her fingers on her purse.

"I'm going to get a drink." And Courtney was left sitting alone.

From the moment Bridgette had brought up the dance, Courtney knew she was going to regret attending. Her scene was far from this place, but she hadn't been able to resist the tug in her stomach when she saw how excited Bridgette had gotten.

The door opened again and in fell a pair of familiar faces.

Courtney sat straighter in her chair as she was Duncan come stumbling in, laughter across his face. His hand was pulling along the last person Courtney had expected to see tonight, Gwen.

Her hair was loose around her ears and her dress was tight around her body, flaring out at her hips and cutting off at her knee.

Courtney felt a bit envious of Gwen's choice to wear combat boots to a school dance when she had let Bridgette talk her into a tiny pair of wedges that squeezed her toes.

The pair melted into the dance floor crowd. Courtney tried to crane her neck to see them but she lost them when Alejandro reappeared at the table, two cups in hand.

"I think they will be announcing King and Queen soon," he told her, a knowing smile on his face.

Courtney stared at him curiously. "I heard it's likely going to Heather."

"She will start a riot if it doesn't," he sighed wistfully, turning to face the dance floor himself.

There wasn't much more conversation between them than that. He tried to ask a few times about her life before she moved, but it wasn't the deep conversations that Courtney craved. While she was sure he was a true gentleman, she wanted someone to question her soul in a more intricate way than 'why did you move to back Muskoka?'

The music faded out and the crowded dance floor came to a halt, making the laughter and conversation louder. The spotlight shone towards the far end of the room and Courtney had to get to her feet to see what was going on.

"It's that time of the night!" The principle announced, taking center stage. "We're about to announce this year's, Homecoming King and Queen!"

A murmur went through the crowd and Courtney's could feel the excitement throughout the gym.

Unlike the movies, there hadn't really been campaigning for homecoming royalty. Everyone was eligible and everyone got a vote.

When Bridgette dragged Courtney to the polling station in between classes earlier in the week, she hadn't even thought about who to vote for. There wasn't a rule against voting for yourself, but Courtney didn't find that she was that conceited. She had eventually settled on Heather, as she guessed most people would be, and, because Geoff had made a joke about it at lunch, she also voted for Duncan.

Alejandro held his hand out for Courtney and she shyly accepted it, allowing him to lead her to the dance floor and into the crowd.

Courtney wiggled her way up to Bridgette who squeezed Courtney's free hand in her own, a look on her face Courtney couldn't place.

They all watched together as the principle was handed a small folded piece of paper. He carefully flipped it open, reading the names to himself first before bringing the microphone back to his lips.

"Your Homecoming Queen is…Heather Chambers!"

There was a loud round of applause for her, which Courtney figured was mostly in relief, as Heather took to the stage, waving graciously.

"And, of course, every good Queen needs her King." There were several scoffs in the audience. "Alejandro Burromuerto!"

The applause was more unsure the second time around.

Alejandro glanced nervously down at Courtney, but she gave him a reassuring smile, urging him to go up on stage. He walked through the crowd, receiving back pats and fist bumps from their peers, making his way up to where Heather stood.

Heather's face was neutral, but Courtney sensed she wasn't impressed with this decision by the way her eyes followed Alejandro with a vicious glare. She was even less impressed when the principal announced that there would now be a royal dance between the two.

The crowd took a few steps back, clearing the space for the couple.

Bridgette pulled a face beside Courtney, but Courtney just smiled back with a laugh.

Alejandro held out his hand to Heather as he reached the bottom of the steps, leading her onto the dance floor. The music played around them and they held each other close, knowingly.

There were more whispers around the crowd at the obvious power struggle as Heather was not one to not lead. Heated words were passed between the two, Heather's unreadable façade fading.

Alejandro grinned down at her and the pair came to an abrupt halt. Heather stomped her foot, twirling away from him, speed-walking through the crowd and towards the side exit.

Courtney's breath paused for a moment, thinking he was going to turn and look at her, ask her to dance instead. Instead, he rushed after Heather.

* * *

Courtney had been sat at her table by herself for almost an hour before she decided to go for a stroll. The flashing lights and heavy music were starting to give her a headache, and she hadn't seen her friends or her date in a long enough time to forget she had come as part of a group at all.

She stumbled her way out the front doors leading to the parking lot. From the steps she could see the ocean through the trees, as well as a shadowed figured leaning against the railings a few steps below.

"You know smoking is bad for you, right?" Courtney asked, watching as Gwen took another drag of her half-finished cigarette.

The other girl smirked back up at her. "You must be so fun at parties."

Courtney bit her tongue to stop her from going full rant on the subject. It wasn't the moment.

She took a few more steps towards Gwen. Crossing her arms across her chest she said, "I didn't know you and Duncan were a thing." Gwen raised her eyebrow. "It's cool, I get it, I just…I didn't know."

Gwen smirk widens. "Well, you wouldn't know," she replied. "You haven't been back here long and you haven't taken much time to get to know anyone other than Bridgette; who I am surprised you have gotten to know actually, considering her and Geoff are constantly joined at the lips."

Courtney let out a gentle laugh, relaxing under Gwen's gaze.

"You wouldn't know," she continued. "That me and Duncan used to date through most of eighth and into ninth. You wouldn't know that I broke his heart because I am a cold, heartless bitch, or whatever he called me. He likes to think he's a hard-ass, but he's more class-clown." At the look on Courtney's face, Gwen followed-up. "But it's cool; we're cool. We're just friends. Now you know."

They stood in silence for a moment, Courtney biting her lip, thinking about what to say next. It wasn't that she was jealous like she had wanted to date Duncan or anything, but seeing them together had upset her stomach somehow.

"Also, I prefer girls, anyway. Now you know that too."

"Oh, I uh…" Courtney stumbled her words, nodding her head. "That's…cool. Thanks for letting me know."

Gwen shrugged, stubbing on her cigarette under her boots. She started to make her way up the steps towards Courtney, but they both stopped as a louder voice came from the side of the building.

"As I was saying," Heather snapped. "You can't just show up to homecoming with the new girl and expect me to be fine about it! You had all week to ask me!"

"Ask you?" Alejandro loudly exclaimed. "You broke things off with me, Heather! You said that this time you meant it and then went and slept with Justin!"

"I did not!" Heather scoffed, "I have taste."

The two came into view as they rounded the side of the building. Heather had her arms crossed against her chest, but her shoulders were covered by Alejandro's suit jacket. He walked slightly behind her, his tie loose and hair mussed up.

"You're just walking away again?" He asked. Heather didn't reply.

Before Courtney could stop herself, she called out, "Great date, Al." Both came to a stop on the grass and Heather sneered up at the two girls on the steps.

Gwen laughed down at the pair before placing her hand on Courtney's arm, nodding towards the doors. Courtney nodded and they both walked back into the entrance hall together.

"You know, you could have made an effort tonight," Alejandro shouted after them. He jogged up the steps and into the building, Heather whining at his heels. "You didn't want to dance, didn't want to talk."

"She's allowed to not want to dance," Gwen hissed, turning back to face him. "And I'm sure your conversation is riveting."

"What's going on?" The door to the gym opened and Geoff and Duncan came through, making their presence known in the small foyer.

"Al's being his usual stuck up self," Gwen explained.

"That's not true," Alejandro hissed back. "All I'm saying is she didn't exactly make it a great time either."

"Girls are allowed to say no to you!"

"Hey, lay off!" Duncan intervened, stepping in front of Gwen.

"Or what?" Alejandro held his hands up, ready to shove Duncan backwards. Instead, Duncan raised his fist quickly, connecting it with Alejandro's cheek.

Courtney squealed, her hands covering her open mouth. She took a step back, colliding with Geoff.

"What the fuck?!" Heather cried out, taking a step forward. She raised her own hand, ready to strike Duncan, but as if in slow motion, Gwen pounced forward, grabbing Heather's wrist. Heather kicked her leg out, striking Gwen in the knee. She didn't let herself fall, she lunged at Heather instead, taking both of them crashing to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's been so long since I updated!
> 
> I've really struggled to write the last two weeks and I have no idea why!
> 
> And I promise that chapter four will have some cute Gwourtney and a bit more plot to it!
> 
> Also, I celebrate 10 years of being on FFn this weekend and I am so happy! I wrote a lil Duncney fic to commemorate, so please do have a read 😊
> 
> Love,
> 
> ChloeRhiannonX


	5. Chapter Four

It wasn’t fair, Courtney thought. She had expressed her thought out loud several times throughout the course of the day, and she was sure her friends were sick of hearing it now.

Well, that and the other story going around the school of another painting on the side of the gymnasium that appeared over the weekend. Another vase of flowers, these ones beautiful but poisoned.

"I can't believe those two are still allowed in here," Courtney sneered, disgusted by the sight of Alejandro and Heather pressed up against a set of lockers she was sure wasn't their own. "If they were going to suspend anyone, it should have been them."

"Duncan started the fight," Bridgette pointed out, rearranging her books. "And it's only a week suspension, it could have been a lot worse."

"Still, it's not fair Gwen has to miss school too. Heather definitely started that fight."

Bridgette giggled. "Yeah, right."

"You think Gwen started the fight?" Courtney turned quickly to face her friend.

"Oh no, I believe Heather started the fight, but it's not like Gwen is missing much more school than usual."

Courtney furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "What do you mean?"

Bridgette cleared her throat, shutting her locker door. She started walking down the hallway towards their final class for the day and Courtney moved quickly to catch up to her stride.

"Haven't you noticed that Gwen's not in many classes?"

"I guessed she had different ones to me," Courtney shrugged, never having thought about it. The first time she had really seen Gwen since being home was at the coffee shop. They had never run into each other in the hallways or spied her across the room in any of her classes.

"Maybe that is true," Bridgette replied. "But it's also a well-known fact that Gwen cuts most of her classes so she can get more shifts at The Grind."

"Why would she do that?"

Bridgette halted, looking Courtney up and down.

"I thought you knew," she said, but Courtney's confusion had only grown. "Gwen's dad left when we were in ninth, just walked out on all of them, everyone knows. Her mom kind of had a mental breakdown and now she mostly takes care of her and her brother."

Courtney couldn't get Bridgette's words out of her head for the rest of the day. No one had stopped to tell her what had been going on with her childhood best friend and now she felt guilty for not doing something sooner.

Gwen had been right; she hadn't stopped to notice anyone but Bridgette in her short time home.

Courtney went to bed that night with her head full of thoughts. She tossed and turned for hours in her darkened room, unable to stop her worries. The overwhelming need to fix a situation she didn't know anything about ate away at her until it was past midnight and sleep was the last thing on her mind.

She resonated to sitting at her desk, her lamp casting an ominous glow across her homework. Courtney didn't get much more done than clutching a pen in one hand and her head in the other before a light tap came from the dark. She jumped, scared of any creepy noise, and then it came again, coming from her window.

Courtney moved slowly, crouching as glanced up through the window into the street below just in time for another pebble to bounce off the glass. She shot to her feet, sliding open the window and calling below, "What are you doing?"

"I was driving past and saw your light on." Gwen grinned up at her in the dark, lit only by the streetlight. "Do you want to go for a drive? With me?" She quickly added, pointing to her car parked in the middle of the street.

"It's the middle of the night," Courtney hissed back. "And it's a school night!"

"Not for me it isn't."

Courtney scrunched up her face in anger, torn between the two choices in front of her. She had never done anything like this before; sneaking out in the middle of the night? Unheard of in the Taylor household.

But on the other hand, this was Gwen. Gwen who used to hold her hand to cross the street and Gwen who always shared her chocolate bars on the playground. Nine years didn't change a person that much.

So, Courtney ended up in Gwen's car, the music low and their lack of words echoing into Courtney's mind like a siren. People did change in nine years and she needed to stop listening to the rush of adrenaline that told her otherwise. She didn't know the young woman sat beside her, didn't know where they were heading or if she was wearing the right clothes for the occasion after getting dressed mostly in the dark.

The drive wasn't long, and Courtney knew her way around enough to know they were almost out of the town completely. Fields surrounded them on every side and Courtney couldn't see the road they had come from or the road that would lead them on when Gwen pulled up on a shorter patch of grass.

There was a small brick building to the right, though the overgrown weeds and door falling off its hinges suggested no one had been around to see it in a long while.

"Is this the part where you murder me?" Courtney joked, her throat dry.

"Nah," Gwen replied, opening her door. "This is where we come to dump the body of the guy I killed on the way over."

Courtney didn't realise she'd stopped breathing until Gwen started laughing.

"I'm kidding! Lighten up, Court." Courtney did not lighten up as her heart was pounding against her chest. "I don't remember you being such a stick-in-the-mud when we were kids."

"I don't remember your jokes being so morbid when we were kids." Courtney got out of the car, but didn't shut the door, she braced her hand on the roof. "This is the setting for a zombie apocalypse, you know that, right?"

Gwen laughed again, hauling a duffle bag out of her back seat.

Courtney hesitated, wondering if Gwen really did have a dead body in that thing, but quickly shook her head free of the thought. This wasn't one of the midnight horror movies she often avoided on television, this was her and her former best friend out for a late-night stroll.

"I want to show you something," Gwen said over her shoulder, already walking towards the empty building.

Courtney bit her lip but couldn't resist following. She pushed her feet through the waist-high grass, some taller spikes hitting against her palms, but she kept going, trying to match Gwen's footpath.

Gwen rounded the back of the building but kept her distance from the wall. Courtney followed, unsure where she was leading but watched as Gwen dropped her duffle onto the ground a few feet away.

Courtney caught up, crossing her arms across her chest, grateful it wasn't the middle of winter yet and she hadn't needed a thicker hoodie.

"You wanted to show me a field?" Courtney asked, her face emotionless.

Gwen smirked, placing her hands on both of Courtney's shoulders, to which Courtney took a half-step away, but not far enough that Gwen couldn't turn her to face the building.

The edge was trimmed with white with sweeping swirls of blue and gold encasing the brick wall in its entirety. The beach was laid out perfectly before the two girls, the waves crashing and the sand baking, just the way Courtney remembered it when she was young.

Courtney gasped. "It's beautiful. How did you find it?"

Gwen crouched down, unzipping her bag and pulling out an unfamiliar object. She handed one to Courtney and kept one for herself.

"Find it? Court, I created it."

Courtney stared down at the can in her hand, at first wondering if this was alcohol and if she was really about to start regretting leaving her bedroom. Upon inspection, she found it not to be a beverage, but a paint canister.

"Wait, you…You're the one who's graffiti's everywhere?"

"Graffiti is a harsh word," Gwen replied, not quite looking Courtney in the eye. "I have been artistically upgrading our small towns ugly appearance."

"Holy shit." Courtney held back her excited squeal. "You're good, like really good!"

It was hard to see in the dark, but Gwen ducked her head away, colour flushing her cheeks.

Courtney looked at her and her heart swelled. She remembered the drawings that she had sent in the mail when Courtney had first moved to Montreal, they had been beautiful and intricate, and Gwen had clearly nourished that talent.

"It's not finished yet," she said, gesturing to the cans in both of their hands.

"Oh, oh no." Courtney shook her head. "I have no creative talent at all. I don't want to ruin your painting."

"You can't ruin a painting, Courtney. Whatever you create is yours to create." Gwen waved her hands wildly, gesturing to the wall and the mural that shone under the moonlight. "And if it truly sucks, we'll just paint over it."

So, they painted. Courtney was very slow at first, careful not to put too much pressure on the can until Gwen grabbed her hand and pushed her finger down, creating a deep yellow line across one the waves. Courtney squealed in horror, but Gwen laughed, adding some of her own paint beside it.

It didn't look worse when Courtney stepped away, admiring their work after an hour. She watched Gwen working on the beach, the paintbrush she had swapped her can for placed delicately between her fingers. Her eyes were focused and her mouth slightly open as she softly drew lines and curves, creating her masterpiece before them both.

"You're really good," Courtney whispered to the night.

"You already said that," Gwen replied, not turning around.

"I mean it."

Gwen sighed, pulling herself away from the wall. She looked at her work, twirling the paintbrush in her hand before moving to find her duffle bag.

"I like to draw and paint and be…" She trailed off. "I feel free when I get to create things, like this." She gestured to the wall and Courtney turned back to admire it again.

They had added more colour; added beach scenery and frothy waves. It was starting to shape together.

"When I paint, I don't have to be anyone else," Gwen admitted, her head turned away from Courtney. "I'm not a daughter or a sister or a student, I'm just me being me. And I feel free."

Courtney chewed her lip for a moment, unsure of what to say, buts eh figured it was better to bite the bullet. "I'm sorry about your dad."

Gwen snorted. "Don't be. We're better off without him."

"Was it…Was it bad?"

"No, not really. It was quiet. They didn't shout or fight, and he didn't hit us or anything, not like Duncan's dad."

"Duncan's dad hits him?" Courtney cried out, her eyes wide.

Gwen shrugged. "Not so much now, I don't think, but middle school was rough. I had to teach him how to do make-up to cover up the bruises." She let out a breath. "It's kind of how we ended up dating. He used to stay at mine for days at a time sometimes, but…yeah. There's that."

Gwen got to her feet, shouldering her duffle bag, while Courtney just stared opened mouthed. She really didn't know the people around her anymore.

"I'm sorry about your grandmother," Gwen whispered, taking a step closer to Courtney. "We all heard when she was taken into hospital, how's she doing?"

"Not great," Courtney mumbled, not able to look Gwen in the eye. Courtney's eyes glassed over as she shrugged, trying not to care. "She smoked for fifty years; lung cancer was very much expected by this point."

Gwen paused, her eyes staring straight at Courtney.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I-" She cut herself off, fumbling for what to say. There wasn't anything she could say to make things better, there was nothing anyone could say or do.

Courtney was spending most nights in tears, but she didn't want to talk about that. She didn't want to talk about the good times or the bad times. She didn't want to talk about the woman who practically raised her was not going to be coming home because every day the doctors told them it wasn't getting any better. She didn't want to talk.

"I didn't mean to start smoking," Gwen said, her words shaky. "I…When he left, I found a packet tucked in between the sofa cushions and I wanted to move them, so Liam didn't find them. I don't know if you remember but my dad smoked pretty much every day of my life, and I was angry and I was sad, so I opened them and I lit one and the smell-" A tear ran down Gwen's cheek and she moved to brush it away with the back of her hand. "The smell just reminded me of him in a way that I wanted him to be back, to be home and I just wanted things to be normal again."

She let the tears run down her face, and she let Courtney pull her into a tight embrace as she sobbed into her neck, letting go of a pain Courtney didn't realise they both had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna end this here before I start waffling.
> 
> Yes, I cried while writing that, and also yes, I did make a zombie apocalypse reference. You know if you know ;)
> 
> Love,
> 
> ChloeRhiannonX

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to post this today, but the excitement got the better of me!
> 
> This was originally going to be Duncney but the more I planned this story, the more Gwen just fit the character way better than Duncan did (you will definitely see why as we delve into this), so here we have some Gwourtney coming for you!
> 
> Just in time for Pride month! Happy Pride month!
> 
> Casual shoutout to Taylor Swift for once again inspiring me with her lyrics (shoutout if you know what song!)
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this story as much as I have enjoyed mapping it out today. I haven't prewritten this as I did KYEOTS so updates may be a lil more irregular, but please bear with me I am doing my best!
> 
> Love,
> 
> ChloeRhiannonX


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